And now’s when you start to think the title of this post doesn’t have anything to do with the video itself and I just wanted to put Totalbiscuit’s name in it…and you’re not entirely wrong.

Okay, enough with the film noir. Actually this post DOES have to do with Totalbiscuit, so don’t click away just yet.

I play Hearthstone. I play it on my Twitch channel and sometimes I upload my games to my Garrett’s Games channel.

Totalbiscuit also plays Hearthstone, albeit to a MUCH bigger audience, and MUCH better than I do. Not because he’s brilliant at the game but because I’m particularly bad at it.

And on his Twitch channel and his podcast he will go on and on and on about how much he hates Zoo decks and anyone who plays them. And every time he does I cringe a little because…I play a zoo deck.

(Beeteedub if you don’t play Hearthstone, a Zoo deck is just a certain deck configuration that requires very little strategy or thought to play and yet is VERY VERY GOOD and hence the deck is VERY VERY POPULAR).

“But don’t hate me,”

(I would theoretically say to Totalbiscuit if he were theoretically here)

“I only play Zoo because I can’t afford to just buy all the cards in the game, so I can’t do good homebrews. Zoo is just REALLY easy to put together, and with the coins I win playing Zoo, I’m able to buy more cards, and put together better decks.”

But even with its low skill threshold, it’s really easy to lose with Zoo. First of all, lots of people now play control decks that are good against Zoo. But, perhaps more importantly, sometimes the card draw just sucks and you get screwed over.

And that got me thinking: why do we love these games so much where, no matter how good you are or how good your strategy, luck can still screw you in an instant?

I’ve been playing a lot of Settlers of Catan recently, and that game’s the same way. You can have a whole strategy worked out, but if you don’t roll your resources, you’re screwed.

But then of course, skill is still a major factor. That’s why there are people who are always in the Legend rank in Hearthstone, and some people who just always seem to win their Settlers of Catan games.

Because if you’re good enough and smart enough, you’re able to compensate for crappy luck. Not all the time. But a lot of the time.

And then I realized…that’s kind of a pretty good metaphor for life. Not what life necessarily IS like—but what I think we wish life was like.

I think that luck plays a much bigger factor in life than it does in board games and card games, for instance, the circumstances of your birth. If you were born to millionaire parents, you are inordinately more likely to grow up a millionaire yourself, and that can make life a lot easier than if you were born in, let’s say, a war-torn section of the world where you don’t have access to clean water.

And sometimes you can be good enough or smart enough to beat luck, but most of the time it’s not that simple. Like, sometimes really, really good and successful people will just up and die in a plane crash, or a car accident.

Or things can be going well, and luck can just come in and screw you over. Like, I’m sure Totalbiscuit’s plan for this portion of his life did not include him dealing with cancer, but he has to.

I think we all wish that our skill and our smarts and how good of a person we are mattered MORE in determining our success or failure in life. And I think that comes out in the games we play, where luck plays a role, but what’s in here *taps head* determines who wins more often than not.

And while I’ve always found it best to ignore luck, because you can’t really do much about it either way, boy do I wish we lived in a world where the best people were luckiest. Most of the time.

Too many deep thoughts for the day, Rebels. I’m going to go finish another book. And maybe play some Hearthstone.

Over 100,000 readers have read and loved Garrett's books, like the fantasy hits Nightblade and Midrealm. He's also a film festival favorite with movies like Unsaid, and a tech guru who posts lots of helpful how-tos for writers and filmmakers over at garrettbrobinson.com.